## **Arts Destination South Molton (ADSM) Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23**
This report is not comprehensive and I submit it with the proviso that I cannot guarantee that this is a record of events as they occurred because I was not present at the time and it is largely written by trustees who were present.
I also draw attention to the questions prior to the filing of the accounts for which I have had to make educated guesses as to their answers not having all the facts.
The trustees of the charity submit their annual report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2023. The trustees have prepared Receipts and Payments accounts, as well as complying with statutory requirements and the governing document.
## **Constitution and Organisational Structure**
The charity was entered on the Register of Charities on 9 March 2020 and is Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) governed by a Foundation Model constitution adopted on 9 March 2020.
Its registered charity number is 1188431 and its registered office address is The Amory Centre, 125 East Street, South Molton EX36 4BB.
It is governed by a board of trustees which consists of:
Matthew Bushell, Chair – appointed 9 March 2020
Peter Bishop, Treasurer – appointed 7 December 202
Rev Dr Michael Grandey, Secretary – appointed 28 February 2021 John St John – appointed 27 July 2022
David Worden, Vice Chair– appointed 27 July 2022
New trustees are elected by the board of trustees. Apart from the founding trustees, who serve initial terms of between two and four years, trustees serve for four years but may be re-elected.
Working parties are set up to organise specific events and consist of volunteers with the required skills and at least one trustee.
## **Objectlves**
The objects of the CIO are to advance and promote the arts, culture, and heritage for the benefit of persons predominately, but not exclusively, resident in South Molton and the surrounding area, as well as for visitors to the area.
## **Accounts Summary**
Accounts are prepared on a Receipts and Payments basis. Opening Balance: £4,331.17 Closing Balance: £2,814.80 Total Receipts £7,935.31 (Including sponsorship, donations and grants) Total Expenditure £9,451.68
Receipts restricted for specific projects totalled £9,347.28.
Arts Destination South Molton has a policy of ensuring that £1,500 is held in reserves to cover unforeseen expenditure.
Marketing & Publicity
Our programme of ADSM events has been promoted through editorials in local papers and magazines, including South Molton News, Molton Monthly and the Community News. We are immensely grateful for the support of local publishers.
In addition, regular, frequent social media updates are made on our Facebook page as well as on our website (https://artsdestination.co.uk/)
## **Queens Jubilee**
All of ADSM’s activities were focussed on celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee. These included:
## **Celebrating Together: A Community Song**
North Devon musician and song writer, Nick Wyke, was commissioned by ADSM tod a Song for South Molton, working with South Molton Schools, local choirs and community groups. The distinguished local musician, Tom Bayliss, lead the premiere of the song. The song to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne, was based on the town’s two royal charters, Elizabeth I’s all the way back in 1590 in and Charles II’s a short hundred or so years later. It will be a lasting legacy for the town and its people. https://artsdestination.co.uk/celebrating-together-a-community-song/
## **Celebrating Together: The Royal Lime Tree Planters**
Om behalf of ADSM. North Devon artist and choreographer, Katy Lee, created dance with townspeople from across the community to honour the recent tree plantings on the compass entry points to South Molton. Lady Arran led these lime tree plantings, which were part of the Queen’s Green Canopy to mark her reign of 70 years: a living, growing - - legacy for generations to come to enjoy. https://artsdestination.co.uk/celebrating together the-royal-lime-tree-planters/
## **Celebrating Together: A Queen's Procession**
The North Devon artist and set designer, Jeremy Hughes, was commissioned by ADSM to create a fantastical royal tableau of creatures in ‘A Queen’s Procession’ to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee.
The local community was heavily involved in creating the installation and several workshops were held with community groups to involve both the young and the old. When completed the installation was hung in the town’s Pannier Market and officially opened by Lady Arran, Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Devon, on Thursday 2nd June. https://artsdestination.co.uk/celebrating-together-a-queens-procession/
## **Heritage Crafts Day**
One of the special events organised by ADSM was the Heritage Crafts Day in the Pannier Market on Friday 3rd June. This interesting event highlighted many local artists, makers and artisans, skilled and passionate about keeping heritage crafts alive and fresh. The old arts of skep-making, calligraphy, stained glass making, wood carving and turning, spinning and weaving, and many others were displayed and visitor participation was encouraged. https://artsdestination.co.uk/heritage-crafts-day/
## **Report for “Let’s Create: Celebrating Together” QPJC – 1 April to 3 June 2022**
## **1. Outcomes**
We delivered four distinct activities (arts workshops an art installation; the creation of a community song its première; dance workshops to its première, and a Heritage Skills Day). Each was community-based. All were conceived for everyone of all ages and ablilities to join in and designed to leave legacies for the town. We attracted people of all ages and abilities to participate in our offers, creating some activities which will have a lasting effect.
The richness of the commentaries we gathered from sample evaluations of 113 participants at our community workshops over the course of one month illustrate our success.
In our these evalutions – more than two thirds of our respondents gave us the highest rating posssible (6 points) by circling our happiest face; about a fifth rated us with 5 points (circling our very happy face); just over a tenth rated us with 4 points or 3 (choosing to select the happy face or the undecided face) – the rest just gave us a comment!
We used the age ranges in the South Molton PAL, compiled by the DCF Community Insight Team, for our data collection. A total of 150 participants signed in – approximately 3 females to 1 male. The majority of our particitpants (95) were in the age range of 41 -79 (some of the mums felt they shoud have had a younger age bracket to tick!); the next highest age group was the up to 18s (26) ; then 17 participants from ages 19 - 41, and 4 in the 80 plus group.
On the first day of the Jubilee Holiday, we drew people into the Pannier Market for the opening of our art installation. Queuing to get in, a large crowd came – four or five deep around the stage: family members watching their little ones process, wearing their ADSM workshop Jubilee crowns, to lead Lady Arran (our very special guest) to the stage. The next day, several hundred people visited our Heritage Crafts Day in the Pannier Market, from near and far, very many assembling in the Square to watch our dance and song premières.
The following comments - in the words of the workshop particpants and audience members - typify the positive outcomes of our project:
## **Creativity for all**
- “Fantastic opportunity to create” – older woman
- “Willow crafting in woodlands. We created a large wing which can be used for the installation” – younger woman
- “ Being creative – with some help – well given advice – not bossy!” – older woman
- “Weaving with rush and green willow again” – elderly woman
- “It allowed me to be creative” – 13 year old boy
- “Inspiring and fun – lovely song and band” – older woman
- “Three generations of women dancing together” – older woman
- “…the joy on the face of the very young girl who made a little squidgy pot and held it in her hand, looking at it with delight” – older woman
## **Enjoyment**
- “I was happy because of the work” – 5 year old boy
- “I enjoyed working on an activity outdoors in a beautiful setting” – older man
- “It was really fun and I painted with my little sister” – 9 year old girl
- “[I enjoyed] meeting new people and learning new skills ” – older man
- “Loved it. The exhibits look really exciting and also made me laugh” – older woman
- “Joy to South Molton” – teenage boy
- “Good to sing together” – older woman
- “I really enjoyed it: I used to do dancing a long time ago” – 8 year old girl
- “I have really enjoyed learning about the environment through the arts: local pigments, clay, willows and reed ” – older woman
- “I think it’s really magic” – 9 year old girl
## **Joining in commumity activities**
- “Lovely community activity” – older man
- “Very inclusive and [they] showed my little ones around explaining the work” – younger woman, plus children
- “I am grateful to be involved “ – elderly woman
- “Lovely local event – young and not so young taking part together” – older woman
- “I enjoyed how social it was” – 6 year old boy
- “So inspiring to see this amazing community coming together” – younger woman
- “Wonderful events attended by people of all ages, from different social and economic backgrounds, able-bodied and disabled – including many wheelchair and mobility scooter users” – older woman
## **Legacies for the town**
- “Documenting with photography” – older woman
- “New friends were made by getting involved in the Community” – elderly woman
- “We showed South Molton what the young and old can do” – younger woman
- “I’m going to keep my words. We must sing it again!”– elderly man
- “Art installation: absolutely fantastic. Second to none. You’ve done a fantastic job” – older woman
- “Beautiful work, we’re looking forward to coming into town to see it. Hopefully it will be there for a long time” – social media comment
- “It looks good and is a good sight for South Molton” – teenage boy
## **Final Words**
- “I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this unique Jubilee occasion” – elderly woman
(* See below for further key comments. See Appendix 1: for all recorded comments.)
## **2. Challenges**
## **Integrated whole town celebrations**
As a positive change from traditional ways of operating in South Molton (in which organisations “do their own thing, being drawn together by the Council) ADSM planned to develop a cohesive and integrated approach to the QPJC with South Molton Town Council - our principal stakeholder. Although meetings of multiple agencies began in January – led
by the Town Clerk, the Mayor and ADSM – it soon became apparent that individual organisations had clear ideas for their own celebrations, and some had developed their activities.
Even with the full support of the Town Council, ADSM was not able to lead a coordinated, town initiative.
## **Time frame – schools**
We planned to develop the links ADSM had built previously with local schools to include school-aged children extensively in our Jubilee activities. Yet the schools were busy with their own agenda of yearly examinations, whilst still playing catch-up after the effects of the Covid pandemic.
The ACE Jubilee schedule and that of the Easter school holidays meant that there was very little time for ADSM to officially promote our activities in local schools. Furthermore, all the activities we planned were going to take place in the Half Term holidays.
For example, the Community Primary School, had expressed interest early on to join in ADSM QPJC arts activities, but pulled out of several arrangements we made with them for the Art Installation workshops; and later from plans made to learn the Community Charter Song and to take part in the première.
We were thus unable to encourage children/ young people to join in our activities through the school network, as we had planned.
## **Publicity**
We publicised our events extensively through social media and in various print media outlets** , and had event leaflets printed, which we distributed widely in different settings. In addition, we used Mailchimp updates to inform our growing audience database, as well as contacting relevant local organisations. Despite this concerted and varied effort, out of the 150 responses that we collected from our workshop registers, a surprising 47 recorded that they had heard about us through word of mouth. Evaluating the dance, a participant wrote: “I wished we'd known about it sooner.”
Although we had good attendance at our workshops, particularly the Art Installation ones – with repeat attendees - and for the practice of the Community Charter Song, we would have welcomed more participants for the Royal Lime Tree Planters’ Dance. As one participant asserted: “I can only imagine what that dance would have been like with more people and practice.”
## **Links with other organisations principally YMCA / Scouts**
With the centre’s permission, we based our practices for the dance in the YMCA. The manager and coordinator of the centre were aware of the purpose and aims of that activity: to draw people of all ages into arts activities in which they would not normally engage. We were disappointed that, although we were welcome to talk to individual users and give out leaflets at the Centre at times when it was busy, the onus was on ADSM to advertise – rather than being something which the YMCA promoted jointly.
Although the Scouts responded generously the last time we asked for their help with delivering leaflets to publicise our ADSM activities, emails requesting their support for the Jubilee went unanswered. Therefore, we did not, as planned, get our leaflets delivered to the new housing estates to engage newer inhabitants in our activities.
Through One South Molton, ADSM was lucky to make a serendipitous link with the North Devon Biosphere and were able to provide a creating with willow workshop for them in the
Community Woodlands. All who attended had an excellent creative and sociable time in the open air.
U3A were supportive and brought three participants to our workshop events. When we visited the Men’s Shed only three members were present, all too frail to participate. The local old people’s home would have been willing to join in, but it had organised its own events for its residents. We collaborated with the Library on a Beaford Arts event leading up to the QPJC and invited the Friends of the Library to contribute a stall to our Heritage Skills event. Yet, due to other library-related commitments to celebrate the Jubilee, they were unable to collaborate with us.
(See Appendix 2: for all details recorded in workshop registers)
## **Personnel**
ADSM had five members – trustees – when the application for “Celebrating Together ” to ACE was submitted. One trustee’s term ended at the beginning of March and another trusteee resigned in March. However, these two - as supporters of ADSM - together with the one of the remaining trustees, carried out all the work of planning, financing, executing and monitoring the project.
## **Budget challenges**
ADSM were pleased to receive £7,000 of funding from ACE through DCF, although we had applied and budgeted for £9,000. The £2,000 shortfall presented ADSM with monetary challenges for financing all the strands of our planned project, “Celebrating Together’”. We applied for extra funding from South Molton Town Council (receiving an extra £250) as well as drawing on ADSM’s own reserves , rather than compromise the art installation and main - highly visible - strand of the project, ‘A Queen’s Procession’.
Furthermore, ADSM decided to rearrange our original budget figures, adjusting spending between the various strands of the project.
## **Key learning**
- Draw upon the auspices of larger organisaion such as Devon Community Foundation or One Northern Devon / One South Molton to develop cohesive projects across the whole town;
- Start planning early for big projects like “Celebrating Together”;
- Give schools long lead-in times - and plan activities that take palce in term time - to ensure their particaption;
- Develop joint ways of working with organisations such as the YMCA, which, due their range of social-enhancing activites, have large town reach;
- Publicise events more whilst out and about, meeting potential particpants “face to face” to gain more support for planned activities;
- Meet providers of services - e.g. The Scouts - in person in order to further effective ways of working together;
- Ensure that all charity members are willing to play their part in developing and working on projects, so that work load is evenly spread
and there are enough people to do all the work required for a project such as “Celebreating Together”;
- Plan large projects with jettisonable strands – or elements - in case of budgetary shortfall.
## **3. Lasting Partnerships**
## **ADSM and the principal artist**
The partnership between ADSM and Artist and Creator of “A Queens’ Procession,” Jeremy Hughes, began in December 2021, when he contacted us to take part in our creative, family event “Fun with Arts”. It blossomed during our preparations for “Celebrating Together” and climaxed at its opening, on the first day of the Jubilee celebrations. Further collaborations with Jeremy Hughes – particularly since he honed his skills at workshop-giving during his work with ADSM – would only be beneficial to the charity.
## **ADSM and the Methodist Church**
The work completed by ADSM in partnership with The Methodist Church for earlier projects, also grew from strength to strength. The participation of the Methodist Church’s Brigades’ leaders – and their Outreach Worker – was invaluable and heart-warming, as well as that of the children and their parents.
Jeremy Hughes wrote enthusiastically about the collaboration in his piece to sum up his significant role in our project.
ADSM would be well advised to build upon this partnership.
(See Appendix 3: for Jeremy Hughes’ evaluation)
## **ADSM and the Town Council**
The collaboration between ADSM and the Town Council also strengthened significantly. In the past Town Clerk has also been supportive, such as lending rooms for activities, and providing help to set them out. For the QPJC the Town Clerk was very generous: for example, allowing the use of the Courtroom for the workshop, for over a month, for the art installation - and providing council workers for an entire day to hang it in the Pannier Market. He also liaised with the Mayor to publicise – and invite – councillors and others to our events. Two Mayors (past and present) both joined the art workshops; the current Mayor, after he had led the opening of the installation, lent us his Parlour for the installation reception. The Town Council also contributed an initial grant (£200) towards to the project – as well as a later one (£250).
This increased working together bodes well for future collaborations between ADSM and the Town Council.
## **ADSM’s Community Charter Song and Local Choirs / Musicians**
The Parish Church lent its premises for the workshop/practice for the Community Charter Song. The song increased the links between ADSM and the local choirs*** , as well as local musicians - particularly Tom Bayliss, The Church Organist and Conductor of “South Molton Sings” and his concert-giving partner, Jo Preston - who have both performed for ADSM previously.
The enhanced partnership between musicians and ADSM promises further good musical consequences for the charity.
## **4. Update on budget spend**
Please see Appendix 4 for this information.
## **To conclude**
The warm sentiment of our principal artist and creator of _The Invitation: A Queen’s Procession_ (“a brilliantly imaginative adventure” according to one of our participants) will, we hope, travel through the future of our town and pave the way for more exciting, inclusive and adventurous arts activities. Let’s carry on the journey in the way this participant observed: “Art in Pannier Market, Heritage Crafts, Dance, Song: the community involvement, range of arts/crafts on display and a celebratory “feel” for everybody,” with, as someone else remarked, “interesting conversations and connections.”
## * Further participants’ key comments
||“Making a willow fsh” – older man;
“Learnt to make paper fowers” – older|
|---|---|
||woman|
||“I decorated the head of the bug” – 8 year old boy|
||“New experience: something diferent for South Molton” – older person|
||“You don’t do or see something like this every day!” – 10 year old girl|
||“I loved getting messy” – older woman|
||“I like doing arts and crafts - I don’t want to go home , I want to stay!” – 10 year|
||old boy|
||“We came to watch my 82 year old mother-in-law in the [Royal Lime Tree|
||Planters’] dance and singing in the community choir” – woman|
||“I loved dancing with the young children” – older woman; “It was quite fun” – 8|
||year old boy|
||“Our song is better than The Jubilee Song!” – older woman;
“The words|
||resonate with us” – older man|
||“We must now make sure this song is sung again and becomes part of the town|
||for the future” – older man|
||“Stunning job – interesting stalls” – older person|
||“Such a relaxed and encouraging opportunity to have a go!”|
||“Congratulations! Really great that there are arts and crafts. We need more of|
||them” – older woman|
||“[Painting with pigments] I enjoyed it because it had lots of paints” – 4 year old|
||girl|
||“Nice to see all ages interested and guys/boys too!” – social media, woman,|
||stallhoder|
||“The queen and her attendants are very colourful – a very talented artist” –|
||elderly woman|
||“Absolutely amazing. Fabulous to be able to see it all being made” – older|
||woman|
||“Absolutely awsome” and “so much work … an amazing achievement” – social|
||media comments|
||“Thank you to the organisers and the Arts Council” – elderly woman|
** Publications: Molton Monthly; South Molton News; South Molton Community News; North Devon Gazette(online); North Devon Journal (Devon Live, online) and Devon Life. *** Choirs: “South Molton Sings,” the Singing Group of the Parish Church, members of North Devon Folk Choir and the Methodist Circuit Choir + individual signing members of the community
## **Aims & objectives of the future broader meetings:**
- To communicate the purpose of the charity as per the Constitution: “ … to advance and promote the arts, culture and heritage for the benefit of persons predominately, but not exclusively resident in South Molton and the surrounding area, as well as for visitors to the area.” To achieve this purpose we will wish (in no particular order):
- to enable, facilitate and support the “arts” (broadly defined) for the benefit of the South Molton area
- to engage with and to listen to the local community to assess its needs and aspirations
- to engage with and to listen to the needs of local artists, and to effectively collaborate and co-operate with them
- to inspire and encourage appropriate arts projects which are initiated from within the local community
- to facilitate a high quality art experience for the local community and to attract visitors to the town by encouraging suitable art projects into the town
- to be a ‘hub’ for the arts and to publicise arts-related events in the area
- to seek and procure funding and other resources for the benefit of local projects, including grants, donations, and sponsorship
- the scope of interest will include all the established and emerging art-forms including innovative projects, AND also craft and other grass-roots activities
## **Links with the community**
Following the impact of Covid-19 we are particularly concerned to include not only those who are not used to partaking in cultural activities, but also to make provision for those who are isolated and lonely within our community; in order to give them joy and satisfaction in taking part in artistic activities - and in creating art of different types.
A focus of the charity’s work over the last year has been in creating links with organisations such as One South Molton and One Northern Devon/ Northern Devon: Arts and Wellbeing to support the work of meeting the needs of those with mental health problems. This direction of our work indicates a shift in our emphasis but does not in any way disregard our aims to draw people into South Molton because of the high quality and diverse range of cultural events that we provide.
.
## **Trustees**
We are focusing on building our core responsibilities: taking the lead in defining the overall strategic direction of the charity; working out how we will get there; monitoring finances; ensuring we comply with the Charity Commission’s guidelines and fulfil the terms in our Constitution.
Our principles are based on needing to take decisions together; making sure that things are running smoothly and that everyone works in cooperation and collaboratively with small - and larger – groups - and creating simple ways of working and clear lines of communication.
Three new trustees (Peter Bishop, John St John and David Worden) were recruited during the year. We continue to need to look at the skill sets which we currently possess and focus on building up a strong trustee team with a balanced, and appropriate, range of capabilities and knowledge.
## **Peter Bishop – Treasurer and Trustee**
## **Arts Destination South Molton**
## **No: 1188431**
## **Receipts and Payments accounts For the period from 01 April 2022 to 31 March 2023**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**£**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**£**|**Restricted funds**
**£**|**Restricted funds**
**£**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**£**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**£**|**Total funds**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Corporate Sponsorship|100.00||-||-||100.00|
|Public Donations|40.48||-||-||40.48|
|Refunds (Note 1)|-||44.83||-||44.83|
||||-||-||-|
|SMTC Grant (Note 2)|-||250.00||-||250.00|
|DCC Grant (Note 3)|-||500.00||-||500.00|
|ACE Grant (Note 4)|-||7,000.00||||7,000.00|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**£140.48**||**£7,794.83**||**£0.00**||**£7,935.31**|
|||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales, (see**
**table).**||||||||
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**||||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**||||||||
||||||||**7,935.31**|
|||||||||
|
Artist/performer costs|**-**||||||**7,129.67**|
|Event Costs|**280.00**||||||**280.00**|
|Artists materials|**17.02**||||||**1,382.18**|
|Leaflet design, printing and delivery|**205.43**||||||**205.43**|
|Other PR - video, photography|**300.00**||||||**300.00**|
|Travel Costs|**50.00**||||||**50.00**|
|Web site and email|**104.40**||||||**104.40**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**956.85**||||||**9,451.68**|
|||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment purchases,**
**(see table)**||||||||
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**||||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||||
||||||||**9,451.68**|
|||||||||
||**- 816.37**||||||**- 1,516.37**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**3,631.17**||||||**4,331.17**|
||**2,814.80**||||||**2,814.80**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B1 Cash funds**|**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts andpayments account(s))
Cash Balance at year end
**Details**
**Details**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**£**
**2,814.80**
**2,814.80**
OK
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**|**Restricted funds**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Amount due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
**Note 1:** Refunds for faulty equipment purchased **Note 2:** The South Molton Town Council (SMTC) grant is ringfenced for Queen's Platinum Jubilee events **Note 3:** The Devon County Council (DCC) community grant is ringfenced for Queen's Platinum Jubilee events **Note 3:** The Arts Council Egnland (ACE) grant is ringfenced for Queen's Platinum Jubilee events
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Signature Print Name
peter bishop
Matthew Bushell
**----- End of picture text -----**